My Dad the Rock Star

I always knew my dad was special. He has far too many quirks NOT to be.

Ok, so he doesn’t actually LOOK the part of a rock star. And he’s really not into rock at all … always been a country music lover. (He swears there’s no music like country music!) Well, that’s a question of taste. Not that I don’t like country music, I’m just devoted to the jazz set. But this is NOT about me. It’s about my Daddy.

It’s funny how after you grow to adulthood, life makes you see things you never noticed before. I hadn’t known my dad was the rock star he is until he recently went into the hospital.

It was NOT a pretty picture. We thought it would be the last time we’d see him, seriously. He’d been in the “community care center” for about six weeks. (NOTE: community care center is another name for nursing home, a term he absolutely HATES). We LOVED taking care of him at home, but it became too much. Only from the standpoint that he wouldn’t allow us to actually bathe him. His pride wouldn’t let him. So it was time for him to go to the “community center.” That said, what more could we do … except call him each day and visit him each day … and pray for him each day? And we did (and still do) all happily.

My Dad’s always been a funny guy. Not Richard Pryor “laugh out loud” funny, but amusing. You know like, “Did he really just say what I think he said?” kind of funny. And he’s so spoiled in these later years. After Mom died fourteen years ago, we doted on him. And coddled him. A lot. He’s grown to like it. Too much I think, but he deserves it.

Anyway, a week ago things looked ominous. He wasn’t eating and was barely drinking. He’d lost thirty pounds in about a month. Being diabetic, we knew this wasn’t good news. So the center whisked him to the emergency room around 9 p.m. Sunday night—which, as anyone who’s ever gone to the emergency room knows—that meant we didn’t leave the hospital until after 1 a.m. And that was a good day.

The following morning he was placed in ICU, but only because that was the only available spot for him until a bed opened up elsewhere in the hospital.

Around 6 p.m.